New research gives a stark warning to richer nations that have been hoarding their supplies of COVID-19 vaccines: Doing so only has a short-term local benefit, and in the longer term leaves everyone more vulnerable to infection.
Right now, high-income countries have access to most of the available vaccine supply, and are looking to prioritize getting their own populations vaccinated – but as the Delta"Our results show that vaccine inequity provides only limited and short-term benefits to HICs," the researchers write in their"Sharper disparities in vaccine allocation between HICs and LMICs lead to earlier and larger outbreaks of new waves.
The researchers looked at data including the global movement of people, vaccine efficacy, and viral evolutionary dynamics to see how different vaccine distribution patterns would work – including examining scenariosWhile HICs initially see a positive trend from hoarding – in terms of reducing the prevalence of COVID-19 infections and the cumulative mortality rate – the delay in vaccinations in other countries simply prolongs the pandemic.
As well as leading to more deaths in LMICs, this means more time for reinfection, a greater possibility of future waves, and more time for theHigh-income countries can't protect themselves from those problems crossing their borders, even with a highly vaccinated population. In the end, not sharing vaccines ends up costing more in terms of fighting infections and keeping people healthy.
"Many researchers and public health experts have warned of the negative consequences of global vaccine inequity," ."Pandemics know no borders, and the public health and economic costs of inequitable vaccine allocation will be borne by all countries in the end."from studies carried out with influenza spread that when vaccines are shared between countries, everybody involved benefits from reduced infection rates.
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